ABSTRACT
Recently, climate changes and effect to the ecosystem are concerning because of the global warming induced by the emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Nuclear hydrogen production is gathering worldwide attention since it can produce hydrogen, a promising energy carrier, without an environmental burden. In 2008, a massive hydrogen production technology utilizing nuclear heat source was selected as one of the innovative technologies which could achieve a favorable balance between a sustainable development and an environmental protection was undertaken by the Council for Science and Technology Policy [1]. Also, the Japan Atomic Energy Commission addressed a roadmap of nuclear energy research and development (R&D) [2] positioning the nuclear hydrogen production as a candidate of the technologies that can achieve the vision for applying a nuclear reactor as a heat source. In the roadmap, it is declared that the prototype demonstration of commercial nuclear hydrogen plants should start by 2020.
